"Govt has to take responsibility for this": TN BJP Vice President on Chennai air show incident
Oct 07, 2024
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 7 : Amid the backlash by the opposition on the ruling DMK government for "neglecting" basic facilities in the Indian Air Force Air Adventure Program at Chennai, Bharatiya Janata Party Tamil Nadu Vice President Narayanan Thirupathy on Monday termed the incident as "Unfortunate" and said that the government has to take responsibility for this.
In a self-made video, the Tamil Nadu BJP leader said, "When the entire Chennai city was enjoying the air show done by the Indian Air Force (IAF), it was very unfortunate that the Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu government and the Chennai police did not cooperate with the public. The maladministration and worst traffic arrangements done by the state police have ended up where we have lost five lives and hundreds got admitted to various hospitals in Chennai. This is due to a lack of proper planning and intelligence. The (state) government has to take responsibility for this and see to it that in future, it doesn't happen."
"Those who have failed should definitely be punished. The government should not wash their hands by just suspending few officials," he added.
This comes after the opposition slammed the DMK government of "neglecting" basic arrangements to public calling it a "complete failure of administration." Former Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami claimed that five people lost their lives during the Air Show event due to heatstroke.
However, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that full administrative cooperation of the state government was extended to successfully conduct the Indian Air Force Air Adventure Program at Chennai.
In a post on X, the Tamil Nadu Health Minister said that arrangements were made considering all the demands of the Air Force officers.
"Full administrative cooperation of the Government of Tamil Nadu was extended to successfully conduct the Indian Air Force Air Adventure Program at Chennai. In order to properly plan and conduct the event, a coordination meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary with Indian Air Force officers and Tamil Nadu government department officials once and then several times at the departmental level. In these consultative meetings, arrangements were made keeping in mind all the demands of the Air Force officers," he added.
The TN Health Minister said that during the event around 7500 police personnel were deployed.
AIADMK leader Kovai Sathyan earlier demanded the resignation of the Health Minister over the Chennai Air Show incident and dubbed it as "complete mismanagement" of the DMK government.
The Indian Air Force on Sunday organised an Air Show at Chennai's Marina Beach ahead of the upcoming 92nd Air Force Day on October 8.